Telenor-Unitech case referred to international arbitration

New Delhi, April 12 (IANS) India-based realty firm Unitech Thursday said the Company Law Board (CLB) has accepted the firm's plea to resolve its dispute with Norway-based Telenor through international arbitration in Singapore.

Unitech along with Telenor run telecom business in India under a joint venture Uninor. The two firms have been at logger heads since quite a few months and the relationship got even worse post the Supreme Court's order to cancel Uninor's licences in India.

Both the companies had separately moved the CLB to protect their individual interests following court's order.

While Telenor filed the petition to "prevent any wrongful obstruction" to its effort to secure its investments, Unitech filed one in response to prevent the Norwegian firm from assuming full control over the business, including assets of Uninor.

"We are pleased that CLB has accepted our plea and respected the shareholders' agreement which clearly defines the dispute resolution mechanism for settlement of the issues relating to the shareholders' agreement," Unitech said in a statement.

Telenor, however, said: "We are yet again surprised at the order of the CLB. We will certainly challenge this order in a higher court, as we have successfully done on matters earlier."

"There should be no doubt that we will do all that is necessary to secure the future of Uninor's employees, customers and partners. Our intention remains to establish a new company as a platform for the future and transfer all Uninor assets, employees and customers to it," said the firm.

Telenor has declared that it intends to form a new company through which it would carry on its mobile business in India and participate in the upcoming 2G spectrum auction.

In order to secure its $3 billion investment in the country, Telenor has also put diplomatic pressure on the Indian government.

The firm has 67.25 percent stake in Uninor and claims 40 million subscribers across the country.